THE SECOND DIVISION

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXV, Issue 135, 9 May 1945, Page 4

THE SECOND DIVISION

(To the Editor.)

Sir, —I, wish to ask, through your paper, what I am sure is a burning question in the -hearts of very many New Zealanders today. Are our men, serving' in the 2nd N.Z.E.F* to he sent hOme now that the war with Germany is over? All we have heard so far is a lot of praise for the Division, but all the praise in the world will not raise the dead to life, mend the shattered limbs of the broken, and give sight to the blind. The best monument to our honoured dead is consideration for the living. Not that I wish to disparage the Government's war effort ;■ on the whole they have made a very fine job of a very difficult task, but I feel that, now New Zealand has given her share of flesh and blood, surely we do not wish to bleed the country to death. We could now if all our men were home still play a very important part in the war with Japan by speeding up our production of foodstuffs and helping to feed the starving millions in Europe, thereby lightening that particular burden from the shoulders of other countries which are better fitted to spare manpower. Also, as the mother of three children, the eldest not yet five, I do not consider it just in any way that there should be still A grado men in New Zealand, drawing large salaries and with no children or at the most one or two, while my own husband was sent overseas almost two years ago. Essentia] industry is not a sufficient excuse; if these men were to die tomorrow, even if they are the heads of businesses, their places would quickly he filled. Even if an army of occupation is necessary in Germany surely the ■men with families who have seen one year's service _ over there could be sent home, their place to be taken, by the previously mentioned A grade men. By the time they have served their year surely the world will he well on the 'way to peace. I trust that some reply will he given to this appeal and that their father will be coming home to my children, as to all of them he is just someone thov hear about but do not remember.—Yours, etc., MOTTIEB OF THREE.